Finding the best stocks in the market can dramatically enhance your investing returns. The Motley Fool has made it its core mission to help the world invest better, and for a quarter-century, it has worked with its members to discover those top investments.
For more than 15 years, Fool members have had access to proprietary stock recommendations from co-founders Tom and David Gardner and their team of analysts. Now, The Motley Fool has created its Fool 100 Index -- and revealed some of the top stocks that have led to huge success over the years.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
The top 10 stocks in the Fool 100 index
Without further ado, here are the 10 stocks in the Fool 100 with the top market capitalizations, based on data as of Dec. 29, 2017.
|
Company |
Weighting in Fool 100 |
|---|---|
|
Apple (AAPL +1.05%) |
8.8% |
|
7.6% | |
|
Microsoft (MSFT +0.17%) |
6.6% |
|
Amazon.com (AMZN +0.20%) |
6% |
|
Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) |
5% |
|
Facebook (FB +0.40%) |
4.9% |
|
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ +0.91%) |
3.8% |
|
Visa (V 0.41%) |
2.6% |
|
UnitedHealth Group (UNH +0.27%) |
2.2% |
|
Home Depot (HD 1.28%) |
2.1% |
Data source: The Motley Fool. Data as of Dec. 29, 2017.
These stocks represent the largest components of the new index, which seeks to include high-quality companies with the best prospects to outperform the market over the long run. In order to get into the Fool 100, a stock has to be issued by a U.S. corporation and listed on a major U.S. stock exchange. More importantly, it must either be a current buy recommendation from one of the five Motley Fool research publications, or among the top 150 stocks in the Fool IQ stock research database. That narrows the thousands of stocks available down to a more manageable list for investors to consider.
A focus on technology
The most obvious thing about the Fool 100's top 10 stocks list is its tilt toward technology companies. Five of the top six constituents are tech stocks, and they span the gamut from hardware and software to internet services, social media, and e-commerce. Given the fact that The Motley Fool emphasizes an innovative spirit in the stocks it recommends, it's not surprising that the fast-moving tech sector is overrepresented in the index.
Data source: Motley Fool. Chart by author.
But you can see that companies in other industries also play key supporting roles. Whether it's insurance, healthcare, retail, or payment systems, the companies at the top of the list offer a good cross-section of the best opportunities in the stock market right now.
Moreover, the broader Fool 100 offers a mix of stocks based on the various strategies that its contributing research publications use. Some of those are focused on high-growth innovators, both among up-and-coming small companies and in the larger-capitalization stock universe. Other Fool research publications take a different view of how to earn top returns, focusing instead on factors like valuation in comparison to growth potential, current dividend and income distributions, or simple fundamental prospects to drive their selections.
What will this list look like next year?
The Fool 100 will evolve over time. The Motley Fool uses a long-term stock selection approach, but when conditions warrant changes in its recommendations, the analyst teams overseeing those stock picks don't hesitate to make appropriate moves. More importantly, the services are always looking for good new stock candidates, so you can expect competition between existing index constituents and newer recommendations that could have even greater potential for gains.
Learn more about the Fool 100 index by visiting the Fool 100 website. With stocks like the 10 listed above, this new index could be a powerful tool to guide your investing strategy.
